An assessment of ionic liquid mutagenicity using the Ames Test
- 18 April 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Green Chemistry
- Vol. 8 (6), 560-567
- https://doi.org/10.1039/b602418a
Abstract
Recent interest in ionic liquids as green replacements for volatile organic solvents has led to an abundance of rapid toxicity testing to provide guidelines for safe designer engineering and synthesis. While toxicity tests have provided a wealth of information, no studies to our knowledge have investigated the mutagenicity of ionic liquids, which should be just as important for design guidelines. Here we present the results of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Ames Test for mutagenicity using Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100 to ten ionic liquids. These include compounds with imidazolium, pyridinium and quaternary ammonium cations. Tests with these bacteria provide information on the ability of a chemical to cause frameshift and missense mutations, respectively, and can be related to higher organism carcinogenicity. Our test results indicated that none of the ten compounds tested met the US EPA criteria for mutagenicity. Two of the imidazolium cation ionic liquids indicated tendencies toward mutagenicity, but only at the highest doses.This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Comparative use of bacterial, algal and protozoan tests to study toxicity of azo- and anthraquinone dyesChemosphere, 2006
- Toxicity and antimicrobial activity of imidazolium and pyridinium ionic liquidsGreen Chemistry, 2005
- Green solvents for sustainable organic synthesis: state of the artGreen Chemistry, 2005
- Acute and chronic toxicity of imidazolium‐based ionic liquids on Daphnia magnaEnvironmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2005
- Ionic Liquids: The Neglected IssuesAustralian Journal of Chemistry, 2005
- Preliminary Assessment of the Sorption of some Alkyl Imidazolium Cations as used in Ionic Liquids to Soils and SedimentsAustralian Journal of Chemistry, 2005
- Biological effects of imidazolium ionic liquids with varying chain lengths in acute Vibrio fischeri and WST-1 cell viability assaysEcotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 2004
- Room temperature ionic liquids as replacements for conventional solvents – A reviewKorean Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2002
- Ionic liquids: Innovative fluids for chemical processingAIChE Journal, 2001
- Densities, Viscosities, and Conductivities of Mixtures of Benzene with the Lewis Acidic Aluminum Chloride + 1-Methyl-3-ethylimidazolium Chloride Molten SaltJournal of Chemical & Engineering Data, 1996